AN INDEPENDENCE FROM EUROPEFormer UK MEP Mike Nattrass

As sure as eggs is eggs compliance will cost Britain
dear

West Midlands MEP Mike Nattrass says the British egg
industry has been caged in by a new EU regulation which UK
producers have obeyed but foreign EU competitors have
ignored.

Almost a dozen European Union member states could continue
producing eggs from battery hens despite an EU ban on their sale
which is due to come into affect from January 1 2012.

During an appearance before the European Parliament’s
Agriculture and Rural Development Committee, John Dalli, the
European Commissioner for Health and Consumer Policy, has made it
clear that the Commission is abandoning the compliant British egg
producers, by making no attempt to ban eggs from those who failed
to comply.

The battery cage ban was originally agreed by the EU in 1999
but Commission figures for April 2011 revealed around 144 million
laying hens were still being kept in battery cages.

Commenting on the situation this week, UKIP MEP Mike Nattrass
said "The Commissioner must have scrambled brains. British
egg producers have all complied and now will struggle to compete
with foreign "illegal" eggs.

Mike Nattrass MEP said: “What is the point of complying
with EU directives? British egg producers have invested £400
million to comply with this directive while other member states,
who did nothing, will be allowed to carry on regardless. It means
UK producers have improved the facilities at great cost, raising
the cost of their product by about 15p per dozen, only to find
they will be undercut and possibly bankrupted by cheap foreign
eggs from "illegal" nasty little battery cages.

“The EU has created an unlevel playing field where UK
egg producers will struggle to export or compete at home against
foreign battery egg producers. This is completely unfair.

“It is clear the EU is not taking the issue of animal
welfare seriously, that it does not honour its own promises and
that the EU does not care about British businesses or others who
"obey".

“Illegal cheap battery eggs will come into this country
and this will put many of our egg producers out of business,
because they did the right thing and complied with the EU
directive. The EU is closing us down.

"I suggest that the UK Government stamp eggs from battery
cages with the skull and cross bones or even better, just use a
heavy stamp.

Promoted by Mike Nattrass on behalf of Independence from Europe, both at 48, Fentham Road, Hampton in
Arden, B92 0AY.
Copyright 2014 Mike Nattrass MEP. All rights reserved.
Copyright of individual pictures and their respective authors is
acknowledged.